Last night the Overland Park Public Works Department presented its second annual bike master plan update to the City Council, and previewed the projects in the works for 2018.

2017 Highlights

Bidding problems with construction contracts delayed several projects until 2018, but a few key segments did get built in 2017:

143rd and 159th Streets in southern OP

Lamar, Lowell, Grant, Grandview, and 99th Terrace in northern OP

Coming up in 2018

Bike route projects planned for northern Overland Park in 2018

Downtown and northern Overland Park network

30 miles of bike routes covering most of OP north of I-435 will include a mix of on-street bike lanes and sharrows.

Southern Overland Park projects

133rd and 137th Streets

Metcalf Avenue (159th – 167th): bike lanes and sidepath trail

Quivira Road (151st to 159th): 5′ shoulders and sidepath trail

Data and Metrics

Overland Park is collecting and reporting what is likely the most comprehensive bicycle data set of any municipality in the KC metro area.

Crashes and Safety
A detailed analysis of the city’s crash data showed that while many crashes occurred across the city, none of them were on streets that been marked with bike lanes or sharrows. Half of all bike crashes involved teenagers or children.

Bike Counts
Counting the number, time, and place of people biking shows that biking happens all over the city, and for a mix of transportation and recreation reasons. The total count of people biking is up 20% from 2016.

Automobile Speed Study
Before/after studies of new bike routes show no negative impact for people in cars, and showed a traffic calming effect that benefits everyone using city streets. For example, speeds on Switzer slowed from 54 mph down to the posted speed limit of 45 mph.

Citizen Satisfaction Survey
The city included bike infrastructure in its annual survey for the first time. Overall, citizens are satisfied with the addition of bike lanes and support continued public funding of bike plan implementation.